Learning Quest Savings Plan

q  Learning Quest Savings Plan

      The Learning Quest® 529 Education Savings Program is Kansas’ state-sponsored 529 plan.  529 plans provide a tax-advantaged way to invest for college (conditioned on meeting certain requirements).  You can open a Learning Quest account with an initial investment of $250 or an automatic monthly investment of $25.  Students may use the money to pay for qualified education expenses at any accredited university, college, or approved technical or vocational program.  Kansas taxpayers can deduct contributions up to $3,000 ($6,000 if married filing jointly) from their Kansas adjusted gross income each year.  Withdrawals used for qualified education expenses are free from federal and Kansas state income tax!  Learning Quest’s high contribution limit allows you to accumulate enough to pay for a five-year college education at a public institution based on today’s estimates.  To learn more about Learning Quest, or to get started, simply do one of the following: 

·         Call 1-877-345-8837

·         Visit www.learningquest.com

Hoop it Up for Hope

q  Hoop it Up for Hope on February 24

WMS is hosting a staff basketball game on Friday, February 24 at 6:30pm to raise money for Children’s Mercy Cancer Center.  Admission is $2.  Several of our staff will be playing!  I hope you will consider participating in this worthy cause!  They will have chili dogs and nachos, as well as raffles for special prize drawings.

2012 Books for Kids

q  2012 Books for Kids Collection Begins February 1! (Post on Blogs)

Central and West Elementary Schools and Wamego Public Library Children's Program announce the 2012 kick-off of Books for Kids, a literacy program for USD 320 community children ages 0-12.  Books for Kids will begin with a drive to collect gently used or new children's books that will run from February 1 until February 29, 2012.  These may include board books, picture books, chapter books and other books for those 0-12 years old. 

Last year we collected over 4,000 books that were distributed in the schools and community!  We also received a generous donation of $1,000 from Best Buy, which will help us purchase two ipad2 tablets for use in our Title I and Special Education Classrooms.

This program will help to increase reading skills such as word recognition, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. This will be done by putting extra books and more opportunities to read in the hands of our local children and students.  Drop-off sites for the book collection are Central Elementary, West Elementary, and Wamego Public Library. 

Be sure to go through your books and find some for our kids--everyone needs some good books to read! We will be collecting until February 29 (which is the Leap Year day) so we can help our kids "Leap Into Being Great Readers!"  The Books for Kids USD320 Literacy Project is sponsored by Central and West Elementary Site Councils.

Science Fair II

<strong>***Science Project Information & Resources:</strong>
<strong>--Science Project Packet/Recording Log:</strong>
<embed src="http://www.embedit.in/ZTT6dm7rDc.swf" height="400" width="466" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true">
<strong>--Science Project Resource:</strong>
<embed src="http://www.embedit.in/JcU6ubJG3F.swf" height="400" width="466" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true">
<strong>--List of Helpful Science Project Websites (Information AND Ideas):</strong>
<a href="http://www.all-science-fair-projects.com/%22%3ehttp:/www.all-science-fair-projects.com/%3c/a> Science Fair Ideas
<a href="http://pbskids.org/dragonflytv/scifair/index.html ">http://pbskids.org/dragonflytv/scifair/index.html </a>PBS Science Ideas
<a href="http://www.sciencefair-projects.org/%22%3ehttp:/www.sciencefair-projects.org/%3c/a> Science Fair Projects
<a href="http://www.sciencebob.com/experiments/index.php ">http://www.sciencebob.com/experiments/index.php </a> Science Demonstrations (& How to Make Them Into Science Projects!)
<a href="http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_display_board.shtml ">http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_display_board.shtml </a>Display Boards

States of Matter Review

Practice for Matter Test

Time for Kids

We will participate again this year in Great American’s Time for Kids promotion. This project provides FREE Time for Kids subscriptions for our students! We have been using these FREE subscriptions during out language arts time on Wednesday to learn and practice many skills including reading for meaning, fact vs. opinion, word parts, and comprehension.  Booklets are being sent home with students on January 20.

• Students that return a completed booklet (with at least 7 names and valid addresses) by Monday, January 23 will receive a frog key chain. Please make sure they understand they must have 7 names and complete addresses in order to get a frog! They are to turn these in by the atrium area in the morning.

• Booklets can be returned any day up until January 26. The sooner they turn them in, the more prizes they get.

• For every 30 students that return a completed booklet, we receive 50 free subscriptions for Time for Kids for next year! Our goal is to have 210 booklets returned!  Thank you for your support in getting FREE resources for our school.

Science Fair

You are invited to attend the 45th Annual Wamego Regional Science and Engineering Fair.  At the fair you will have the opportunity to show your science abilities and to see hundreds of other science fair projects.  There are a variety of awards for projects in each category, age group, subject area, as well as some general special awards. 

Further, the top 20 places in each of the 4-8 and 9-12 grade divisions will earn an invitation to the Kansas State Science and Engineering Fair in Wichita, Kansas held on March 30th – 31st.  The state fair is in its fifth year of existence and offers a variety of new prizes and scholarships.  There is also an opportunity to be advanced to the International Science and Engineering Fair, held this year in Pittsburg, PA on May 13th-18th.

You can access the fair entry form and other general fair information at the science fair website link listed below.  Please note there are requirements for accompanying forms with each project depending upon the nature of the project itself.  Please fill out the necessary forms, found on the website and include them with the entry form. 

     

If you have any further questions feel free to contact either: Shane Neel (neelsha@usd320.com) or                        Allen Sylvester (sylvestera@usd320.com).   

Rounding Practice

Today we talked about estimating and rounding.  Students were to think of the numbers in a number line.  We then placed a given number on that number line to find benchmark numbers (numbers close to the number by 10's, 100's, or 1,000's) and then we rounded the number.  <a href="http://www.free-training-tutorial.com/rounding/sharks.html">Here is a game online to practice rounding to 100.</a>  <a href="http://www.mrnussbaum.com/rounding.htm#drills">Here is a link to some online rounding drills.</a>  <a href="http://www.mrnussbaum.com/rounding.htm#games">Here is a link to more online games.</a>  <a href="http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/rounding.html">Here are printable worksheets</a>. Your student should be able to round to the nearest hundred or thousand.  The next step would be to practice rounding decimals.

Subtraction practice:

We are working on subtracting larger numbers.&nbsp; I will add some helpful resources to this post for your student to practice at home.&nbsp; Here is an <a href="http://www.glencoe.com/sites/common_assets/mathematics/ebook_assets/vmf/VMF-Interface.html">online tool so they can use the base 10 pieces to practice</a>.&nbsp; <a href="http://www.webmath.com/k8ipsub.html">This site allows you to put any number in and then shows you how it is solved using the compact method</a> (old school).&nbsp; <a href="http://www.coolmath4kids.com/subtraction/index.html">Cool math for kids</a> will help you review many areas of subtraction.&nbsp; Here is a <a href="http://www.mrnussbaum.com/subtraction.htm">workmat</a> for solving your own subtraction problems online. <a href="http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/subtraction.html">Printable worksheets</a> to use at home.

Spelling Practice

West Elementary will hold their annual spelling bee on January 20th at 1:00 p.m. 

Here are some sites to check out:

www.myspellit.com

www.spellingbee.com

www.spellingbeethegame.com

http://www.learner.org/interactives/spelling/spelling.html

Prefix and Suffix Practice

Today we worked on prefixes and suffixes.&nbsp; Here are some online games to play at home.

<a href="http://www.studyzone.org/testprep/ela4/b/suffix3p.cfm">Suffix Games</a>

<a href="http://www.studyzone.org/testprep/ela4/b/prefix3p.cfm">Prefix Games</a>

<a href="http://www.funbrain.com/roots/index.html">Funbrain Root Words</a>

Comprehension and Longer Text

Fourth graders should be able to read longer text and comprehend what they are reading. There are many strategies they can use to remember, predict, and comprehend stories. Today we reviewed making connections. <a href="http://reading.ecb.org/index.html">Into the Book</a> is an excellent resource for learning about, reinforcing, and practicing reading comprehension. Encourage your student to go <a href="http://reading.ecb.org/index.html">Into the Book</a> at home. I will even count it as home reading minutes! Enjoy!

Comprehension and Longer Text

Fourth graders should be able to read longer text and comprehend what they are reading. There are many strategies they can use to remember, predict, and comprehend stories. Today we reviewed making connections. <a href="http://reading.ecb.org/index.html">Into the Book</a> is an excellent resource for learning about, reinforcing, and practicing reading comprehension. Encourage your student to go <a href="http://reading.ecb.org/index.html">Into the Book</a> at home. I will even count it as home reading minutes! Enjoy!

Technology Project with Mrs. Norton

Technology Class Request:

Please bring up to 5 family photos for your project in technology.  You may bring hard copies of your photos to school and Mrs. Norton will scan them.  Just make sure your photos are in an envelope labeled with your first and last name in addition to your class code so they can easily be returned to you.  You may also email the photos to Mrs. Norton at nortonb@usd320.com. 

All photos must be either emailed or brought to school by January 20.

Back to School for a New Nine Weeks

   There was no spelling list this week.   We will begin with a new spelling list next week.  In math we are continuing addition and subtraction with regrouping.   Our new science unit it matter.  January is the birthday of the state of Kansas so we will be studying Kansas history and the Midwest states.

Math

Over the next couple of weeks we will be discussing measurement and doing many measuring activities. Please encourage your student to practice measuring at home with rulers, yard sticks, tape measures, scales, measuring cups and measuring spoons. They should be able to decide which unit of measure is best for an item, estimate the weight, and take the weight. Remember telling time is a unit of measurement too.&nbsp; Here are a few fun online games as well.

<a href="http://www.funbrain.com/cgi-bin/meas.cgi?A1=s&amp;A2=0&amp;A3=1&amp;INSTRUCTS=1">Funbrain Measurement</a>

<a href="http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/measure-in-ft-yd.html">SuperTeacher Printable Worksheets</a>

<a href="http://www.ixl.com/math/grade-4/compare-and-convert-customary-units">Compare Measurements</a>

<a href="http://gamequarium.com/measurement.html">Measurement Games</a>

<a href="http://themathworksheetsite.com/read_tape.html">Reading a Tape Measure Make Your Own Worksheets</a>

<a href="http://themathworksheetsite.com/telling_time.html">Telling Time Make Your O